The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-13
AN INGENIOUS REVOLUTION.
The Japanese Premier's Plan for OBJ.
literating Social Distinctions.

The Japanese Premier'S Plan for OBJ
literating Social Distinctions.
A Toxic correspondent of the London
Times sets up an ingenious and powerful
defense of the threatened revolution in
japanese dress. The news that the court of
the Mikado had determined to adopt for
ladies European fashions excited the keen
est regret in all persons of good taste.
japanese dress is not ideal like that of an
Gent Greece. Some absolute merits it
possesses. In simplicity, and, in most re-
spects, in ease and sanity qualities, it is ex-
cellent. 1t has its defects in point of beauty
AS japanese art in general, its quaintness
sometimes impresses before its grace Ii
one point of supreme Importance it
is unassailable. Though its claims
upon the homage of sculptors and
painters may be open to question. it is.
beyond the possibility of dispute, exquis-
itely appropriate to Japan. Whatever her
class, the japanese dress belonging to her
rank is sure to suit the woman who wears
it. Nothing could be more becoming to her
or more convenient to the vocation she fol
lows To imagine her in any other garb
is equally difficult and painful. AS our
correspondent remarks, japanese women
are not less fond than those of other coun-
tries of plentiful wardrobes They have
had the zest, in their accumulationS, of a
sense of security that no sudden change of
fashion will turn their store into old clothes.
The effect of the change in progress, if, as is
probable, the example of sublime quarters
be loyalty initiated, must be, in the first
place, to destroy the value of all this species
of wealth.
Count to- the Prime Minister of Japan.
according to our correspondent, is the real
author of the new heresy in taste. That, at
least, explains the paradox of the Empress
CTp-tf hnr-
to Berlin, of all towns, and not to Paris or
Vienna. The change is a statesman's pol
ICY and not a feminine caprice Count Ito,
though politician with views which would
embrace the world, is also japanese with
an abundant share of the national refine
ment of eye. He is not to be charged with
deliberate preference for Western unpic-
turesqueness in costume. He uses fashions
and their notifications as an instrument
for the accomplishment of objects
he has at heart. Probably the mo-
tive which our correspondent places
last will have been foremost in the Counts
plan. He resents distinctions between East
and West. He feels that, as their modern
fate is to be i'll contact, so long as differ
| ence is preserved between them it will not
be the West which will take the second
rank. While they are twain the West will
be first. lie desires, therefore, so far as
Japan is concerned, to have them treated as
one. Dress is an obvious badge of division
of class; and his aim is to efface an outward
sign Of japanese lnferiority. He is not to
be supposed to like European millinery. He
would see as little charm in the triumphs of
| Partisan dresSmaking as in the painstalIing
| efforts of Berlin. He masses the whole of
European styles as an identical type, and
asks his countrywOmen to adopt il as
a warning to its inventors everywhere
that Japan means to be treated and
| thought OF as on the same plane
with them. This is the intention of the
change externally; and external relations
are known to occupy an engrossing part i'll
the Counts projects. With relation to in
| ternal progress, though more vaguely, his
meditations may be plauslbly presumed to
| follow the general direction traced by orr
correspondent. The merits of existing Japa-
nese dress are hardly merits to him. 1t pre-
supposes acquiescence in the old tenor of
japanese ideas, and he perceives that to be
| no longer practicable or safe. In particu-
lar it keeps the women of Japan outside the
influence of the social revolution which, for
| good or all, or both, is bearing onward their
fathers, brothers and husbands It's SIM
plicity and uniformity impress foreigners
as delightful. They are, in his opinion, liza
BILE to the fault of corresponding to the en-
| tire social system which relegates women to
| the position of mere accessories to national
| life. He wishes women no longer
to keep to the groove marked out
for them beside the broad highway of
national development. He needs them as
auxiliaries in the adjustment of the empire
to its new character in the world at large
TIE strange idea of the possibility of a diff
ferent fashion in dress from that to which
their ancestresses adhered he casts among
them as leaven likely to create lasting
effervescence. He is one of the courageous
reformers who are prepared to spread be-
wilderment and discomfort in order to com
pei minds to bestir themselves He has the
self-sacriticing herosm to shatter bewitch-
I ing model, that his students may be COM
/ PEELED to form standard for themselves.
| He does not even mind recommending the
extravaganza of expenditure on worthless
trash in the place of permanent artistic
fabrics, to make japanese women look for
| ward and SIDEWAYS instead of backward